More coasters for the art exchange

I have really enjoyed making these coasters, so I think I will be getting my paints and brushes out more often in the future.
For these coasters I used structure paints in gold, silver and copper, metal foil - the silber foil was the aluminium seal from a coffee-tin!, stazon and colour box inks, and bits and pieces from my workspace.
I have chosen four for the art exchange, and the rest will find their way to other destinations.
It was great fun to make, I love making a mess, and liked how they turned out,too.
Have a great day, and thanks for looking!

GC87 - Tea Bag Template, Take 2

This is my second take for the Tea Bag Template challenge over on Gingersnaps.
I managed to use up a lot of scraps for this one. The tea-bag has been cut from a scrap of pink cardstock, then stamped & inked with Victorian velvet, and turned into a little love-letter. The spotty card was part of some packaging, *Dream* was on a shop card I received some time back, the pink ribbon and the heart were from different Xmas present packaging, and the braid and pink paisley paper were also left overs from other projects. The tulip has been stamped onto a scrap of a cardboard box, clear embossed and then re-embossed with perfect pearls before cutting it out and sticking it with foam pads to give it more depth. The TH wings have also been cut from cardboard, covered with scrap paper and glazed with mod-podge. The red card was out of one of my many almost forgotten stash boxes - anybody else ever discover things they never knew they had??
Anyway, everything together made a Valentine easel card, was quick and fun to make.
Have a great day you all, thanks for looking, and take care!

Happy Weekend Freebies

Hi everybody out there, good morning from cold and wet Germany This is real crafter's weather, then when it's bad outside, the best thing you can do is to stay home and craft, so I will be making the best of it.
Today I am offering 2 old documents, both invoices from long ago. One is from 1916, and one from 1954. They were both among some old family papers that I am still trying to sort out.... I think they make lovely backgrounds for crafty projects. If you like them, click on the pic, this takes you to a larger image, which you can right click to download.
Enjoy, have a crafty weekend, and take care of yourselves!

Heart coasters - practising for the art exchange

I am taking part in an art exchange over on Gingersnaps. For this we have to make 4 heart coasters, which then get exchanged with other participants. So, I decided to start trying. These are not my entries, but they will be similar. I used coasters, gold and bronze structure paste, Stazon ink in timber brown, TH hearts, crowns and wings die cuts, which have been made out of chipboard and gold and copper metal foil, and two beautiful embossing plates from LaBlanche, one with a heart and one with a diamond pattern. Oh, and a small cuttlebug rose circlet embossing folder and die, diverse flying left overs, and some hearts made from cernit.



*Queen of Hearts* has been made from a coaster, thickly painted with gold and bronze structure paste, and then embossed with the diamond pattern plate. The heart was embossed with the big shot, cut out, distressed with Stazon, and fixed in place with silicone glue, which I also used to polster the heart from underneath. Added another small, sparkly heart, and finished!



For *Love Heart and Roses* I first inked the edges of the coaster, embossed some gold metal foil with the diamond pattern in the big shot, stuck it on again with silicone glue and added some roses (Thanks Netty!). The heart has been made from cernit, which I rolled out, cut using a paper heart template, stamped with my love text, and distressed with the structure pastes and stazon after it had been baked in the oven like a cookie!



*Your sunshine warms my heart* has been made from a coaster thickly daubed with the structure pastes, and then dabbed with an old sponge to roughen it up more. I presed the *Sunshine* charm into the paste while it was still wet, and heated it with the dryer, which makes it bubble and gives more structure. After this torture I distressed it with stazon before adding the cernit heart, freshly embossed, baked and distressed, and some more roses.



*My heart blooms for you* has been made by putting another embossed and distressed gold foil sheet onto a distressed coaster, adding a cernit heart embossed in a TH texture fade folder, cut with a cookie-cutter, and then baked and distressed as before. I added some more roses and an acrylic flower, finished.

They were all great fun to make, really great GREAT fun, my kitchen is in chaos, my hands are all colours of gold, bronze and brown, and I enjoyed it all no end, so looking forward to doing the others for the exchange now!

Thanks for looking and have great day, take care, and hope the sun is shining for you!

I am entering these coasters into the Simon Says *Embossing* Challenge

A new LO

I made this LO yesterday for a challenge over on *Bella Creations*. We had to use the colours pink, cream and turquoise, ribbon or lace, flowers, pearls etc. I chose a photo of my Great Auntie Fanny, taken in 1918. I cut the photo with an oval Sizzix die. The background paper is from the Prima *Sasha Collection*, as this had all the required colours. I stamped the right side several times with my text stamp in *Victorian velvet*, and then used my large rose stamp on the right side and lower edge, using the same colour, which has been lightly embossed. I just wanted the flowers and text to show as a sort of shadow. Then I played with all the bits and bobs till I liked the arrangements. The photo has been placed on a lace doily and a square *daisy doily* (Sizzix) and framed with flowers, some rub-ons, a vintage rose image and some layered flowers partly die cut and combined with some Prima ones which have been dyed to coordinate. Then I added a few pearls, a quote and a bird, and it was finished. It was great fun to make, and I have another page for ny ever growing family scrapbook.
Thanks for looking, thanks to all those who take time to leave a comment, and have a great day!

Bella Creations Challenges - a Tag & 2 Bookmarks

Yesterday was a really good day. The sun shone all day, the birds were singing, I was able to visit a friend who has a real cutie of a new dog, and I even found a parking space when I came home. But the best is yet to come. No housework. No visitors. Just crafting to my heart's content, listening to music and reading. And a never ending supply of coffee and a box of ginger biscuits, a yummy day in all respects.
The tag has been made for the Feruary *Bella Muse* Challenge over on *Bella Creations*
I used a manila tag, and distressed it with my fave TH inks combi - stormy sky, tumbled glass, Victorian Velvet, wild honey and forest moss. Then I used a text stamp over the background, also in forest moss. I could have really saved this step this time, as there is sooooo much on the tag that you can hardly see the background anyway! Then I added some rose rub ons and the leopard. The image - from Bella - has been torn, inked and set in half a lace doiley, which I folded together to make a background. The hearts and wings have been cut from some pink patterned paper, which I stuck onto some waste cardboard from a box, and glazed with sparkly mod-podge before die-cutting it. Then I added two scraps with roses, and that was it. I like the way it has turned out this time!





For the bookmarks we had to use the rabbit image supplied by Gecko Galz. The first one has been made from a large manila tag, distressed again in my fave colours and text stamped. Then I overstamped it with the leopard and some ranking leaves using archival black, which was then clear embossed. Then I added the floral rub ons and the cut out rabbit, after inking the edges. I used one floral scrap on top of the other flowers to give more depth without being bulky. I threaded some pearls onto a brown silk cordel to make the hanger for the top of the bookmark. That was it!



For the second bookmark I used a white card, which I distressed as before. The colours look lighter because the background is white. I stamped it with the trees and birds - from Lavina Stamps - using archival black and forest green, both clear embossed. The little flowers have been drawn by hand, and the rabbit has taken his place ready to conjure spring out of his hat - I hope!

It was all great fun to make. Thanks for looking and have a great day, whatever you are up to!

PS - Don't want to forget this! I was chosen again as a Ginger Gem for my entry into the GC86 *Coffee Filter* challenge - woooooooooohooooooooooooooooooooo!!

GC87 - Tea Bag Template

For this challenge over at Gingersnaps I cut 2 coordinating papers with the template, die cut some lace, and sandwiched the two papers back-to-back with the lace in between so that the edges were neat. The lace and paper edges have been inked with *Victorian Velvet*. Then I cut some *pages* from a watercolour block, inked the edges to match, and tied them together with pink ribbon, before fitting 4 pages into each inside crease of the tea bag. The first page has been *love* stamped and the rest left blank for notes. Used 2 tiny pieces of velcro as a clasp. Added some floral rub-ons on the front and back, and then died some prima flowers to match, layered them to make one flower and added a gem as a centre piece. That was it.
I will do this one again with different papers to try to make a masculine one.



The tag has been made for the Gingersnaps Yahoo group recipe challenge. The ingredients were 1 crown, 1 red, 1 sparkle. The tag has been cut from a biscuit box, distressed with antique linen and stamped with a text in the same colour. Then I stamped the head with archival ink which I clear embossed, used a TH texture fade folder to emboss the crown, using the same biscuit box but with the gold side outside this time. I swiped the crown with black archival again and stuck on some jewels as befitting a crown. Then I added a red ribbon with a glitter flower in the middle, and the tag was finished.

It was, as always, fun to make, especially as I had a visitor over the weekend and 2 days of no-crafting, so definately had withdrawal symptoms yesterday evening!

Thanks for looking and have a great day!